With Tyler Perry at the helm as producer and director for the film adaptation of the 1974 stage play For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf, there is always a buzz because everyone wants to know will his goose lay another golden egg because his films do considerably well. In town to help kick things off for the movie was one of the stars, Kerry Washington, who is just as intellectual as she is beautiful and you know that The Reel Hustler had to sit her down for some Reel Talk and a little star gazing. LOL
The Reel Hustler: Are you excited about this movie?
Kerry Washington: I am, I really am. I feel very honored, truly honored and humble and blessed to be a part of this cast and to be a part of this film. It feels like an important moment in the American cinema, to have this many women of color, up there, each one of us telling an important story.
The Reel Hustler: You play Kelly, a child case worker with your own set of issues. Have you ever personally experienced any of the challenges that the women in the film did?
Kerry: Gosh….what an intense question, because there’s so much. I definitely could relate to every one of the characters in someway, if not someone personally close to me. None of these women felt like they were living a journey that was completely foreign to me. So either I could identify with it or someone close to me has gone through something similar.
The Reel Hustler: How was your experience working with Tyler Perry?
Kerry: It was great! Yeah I had never worked with Tyler before so I was really excited, because he is very inspiring. What he created. When you’re in Hollywood you go to work and you work in the Cary Grant Theater and then you go to work on the Charlie Chaplin stage and the Rita Hayward cafeteria, and you think ‘wow’, I’m a part of an important film legacy, a tradition of film making. You go to Tyler Perry’s studio, you get to work in the Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis Theater and you work on the Sidney Poitier stage and you realize that he’s honoring the contributions that we have made and continue to make, specifically as people of color. It’s very special, very profound for me to be a part of that legacy that he has created.
The Reel Hustler: With so many women involved with this movie and most with super star caliper, including your self, what was the chemistry like on the set? You know what they say ‘a bunch of women can’t get along’.
Kerry: Yeah I think that’s a lot of talk. I don’t know who says that, but it’s not true. We really loved working together. We’ve been talking about it a lot, like a marathon, you know that you would come to work and there would be a buzz on the set like “Ooh Thandie threw down this morning, Thandie really brought it, Thandie and Whoopi, they were tearing it up over in Studio A. And you be like ok, you take that baton after lunch and you say it’s my turn to bring my A game. It wasn’t competitive, it was supportive and encouraging. We really kinda carried each other and just held each other through the process. Everybody has such a different way of working and we were very respectful of each other’s different process. As you might imagine with all these women, the hair and make-up trailer was always a party, 24/7, music pumping. It was great! For me a lot of these women, quite honestly are the reason I do what I do. These women have been like lighthouses for me, inspiring me. Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg,Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, these are women whose work I have looked to and to be able to be among them now, to be working along side them, is a real honor.
The Reel Hustler: You got 16 years and a host of movies under your belt. Out of all the movies you’ve done which is your favorite?
Kerry: You Can’t Ask That!!! (laughing). It’s like asking somebody who their favorite child is, because they are all so special. Because for me I say no a lot, so when I make the decision to do a film, it’s because I really want to do it, for whatever reason. One of my favorite films quite honestly or I’ll say the film I had the most fun making in my entire career was when I made ‘Little Man’ with the Wayans brothers. That’s the most fun I had on a movie set ever.
The Reel Hustler: Who would you like to work with now, seeing that you have already worked with some of the best in the game?
Kerry: I have worked with some really great people. I’ve been really blessed. I’d love to work with Clint Eastwood. I would love to work with Ben Affleck, I think he is on top of the game of American directors right now. Umm I would like to work with umm… oh my gosh, there’s so many, to be honest, I just want to keep working (laughing). I want to keep working. I want to keep being able to do what I love to do for a living for as long as I want to do it.
For Colored Girls opens in theaters November 5, 2010.
Follow Kerry on twitter @kerry washington
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